The present invention relates to devices for molding and harvesting formed ice in a refrigerator for use in cooling beverages and particularly in cooling beverages in individual drinking containers. In providing icemakers for household refrigerators, it is known to form ice in a stationary tray having individual compartments with a curved bottom to provide the formed ice with a generally crescent-shaped configuration. Crescent-shaped ice is typically harvested by heating the tray an amount sufficient to cause a slight amount of melting at the tray/ice interface to enable the crescent ice to be swept from the curved bottom cavity by a rotating comb.
In the above-referenced Karlovits application, such a rotary melt-out icemaker for harvesting crescent ice has been described wherein an arm or tine of the comb is immersed in the waterfill in the cavity or mold and embedded in ice frozen therein to enable harvesting by rotating the embedded comb for sweeping the crescent ice from the cavity. As the crescent ice is swept out of the cavity the level surface of the ice contacts stationary ejectors to cause stripping of the ice from the tine and simultaneous fracturing to thereby provide two half-crescent or quarter-round ice shapes from a single crescent-shaped ice formation.
However, in providing the simultaneous stripping and fracturing of the crescent ice from the rotating harvesting tine by cam action of the crescent ice against the stationary ejector or stripper, problems have been encountered in providing the optimization of stripping and fracturing by pressing the ice against the stationary stripper as the tines of the comb are rotated during the harvesting cycle. In particular, difficulty has been encountered in causing the crescent ice to fracture as it is radially stripped from the rotating harvesting tine, inasmuch as the forces of the camming surface of the stripper tend to move the ice in a radial direction from the rotating tine; and in some instances, insufficient forces have been provided to cause fracturing and splitting of the crescent into the half-crescent shape.
Accordingly, it has been desired to provide a way or means of ensuring that harvested crescent ice in a refrigerator icemaker is split or fractured into two half-crescent sections as it is harvested from the mechanism for providing the optimum configuration for iced beverages in individual glasses or cups.